Slay The Spire

22 Jan 2018
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blog

Sometimes a fresh new idea doesn’t require the invention of something genuinely
new, but just the composition of existing disparate concepts. (In fact, I’d
wager that’s more common than not.) Slay the Spire, the debut title from Mega
Crit Games, is a perfect example. Take a deck-building mechanic (very popular
right now in titles like Hearthstone), add a rogue-like randomly generated
map to explore (also very hot right now), and build that on top of a very
simple turn-based combat game and you’ve got something that feels both familiar
and yet like a new experience.

Play involves choosing a starting character, with a small deck of cards split
between cards that deal or block damage, apply debuffs to enemies, or add
abilities. Dungeon encounters may involve turn based combat, or gambling some
gold for a “relic” that adds or modifies a system in the game, or discovering
a curse or reward. After the first map is explored, and its boss defeated,
it’s likely that your character will feel almost unique, with an expanded
deck of cards that focuses on slowly building poison damage on an enemy while
blocking their attacks, or snowballing your strength until you can knock
enemies aside with ease, or abilities to fill your hand with cards and
overwhelm enemies with numbers. Play through the next two maps and you’re
game will be changed even further - though, more likely, you’ll encounter
an enemy that your particular strategy isn’t so effective against, you’ll be
defeated, and will start over to explore other tactics.

The experience is simple yet offers depth, challenging while fair, tactical but
chaotic. Minor balance issues seem to be tweaked with regular patches, and for
a game in early access it’s impressive just how complete it feels.